Carol Palms, an enthusiastic and generous instrumental music teacher at Slauson Middle School is bringing her students to play us some tunes this Friday. We are thrilled to have them! Please take a monment and read Carol’s message:
The Slauson 8th grade orchestra is a dedicated group of 28 students (17 violins, 6 violas, 3 cellos and 2 string basses – what you’d call a perfectly balanced ensemble!) who have played together since the sixth grade. They rehearse at school every day during fifth hour. They recently played their final school performance on May 6 in the Slauson Middle School Auditorium. Soon after that concert, we began to think about fun and meaningful ways to end our school year together.
Many of the kids liked the idea of “busking” on the streets of Ann Arbor for tips! Well, since you have to obtain a license or a permit to do something like that, we realized that might not work for us. Instead, we asked the folks at the SELMA Café if we could play at their home during a Friday morning breakfast. They said “YES!”
As their orchestra teacher, I’m especially happy to see these students putting their energy into a healthy and worthwhile cause such as this. They are all helping to plan our big event: Josseline is making sure all the kids will have a ride there, Vishal is our equipment manager, Melanie and Chanda are our music librarians, Beth, Tim and Iris have made some great posters and flyers, Keely is writing those important thank you notes, some of the kids will even be clearing the compost and wood chips out of the driveway so we have a space to play, and Chenxi is running the musical rehearsals.
Speaking of the music – we’re going to play some of our favorite OLDIES BUT GOODIES from their 6th and 7th grade orchestra concerts! Some songs, like “Dragon Hunter” and “March of the Metro Gnome”, are easy and a little bit goofy, but we might also satisfy the more sophisticated listener with Tchaikovsky’s “Trepak” and Vivaldi’s “Concerto in g minor for two celli.”
We want to thank the volunteers at the SELMA Café who have embraced this idea. The kids will be learning a lot about the local food movement when Jeff and Tomm visit our classroom on Wednesday. They’ll also understand how rewarding it can be to do community service.
Hoping to see all food-lovers and music-lovers put a little something in our “tip jar” – and wait ‘til you see our tip jar! Music begins at 7:30 am ‘til about 8:30 am.
Sincere thanks from their proud and excited teacher – Carol Palms.
Be sure to come by and enjoy this great group of students, while supporting Selma Cafe. Big thanks to Carol for making this happen!
~Lisa